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Election Update Closure Of Polls

Polls have officially closed at almost all polling stations across the country. Our reports have shown that the exercise has been exceptionally successful in all places except in very few instances where we had minor issues. For places where there are still voters in the queue before 5:00pm, all of them would have the chance to vote before sorting and counting starts. Let me now turn my attention to the two specific cases:

1. AFRAM PLAINS NORTH CONSTITUENCY

We have received reports about challenges with the polling stations located on the Dwarf Island. That Island is one of the hard to reach areas. Ballot papers and other voting materials were airlifted to the Island at 9:30am. It took at least 2 hours for the materials to be distributed to all the polling stations on the Island hence voting started late. Following a review of the situation at 5:00pm, the Commission has decided to extend voting in these areas by 5 hours. Voting is currently still ongoing and will end at about 10:00pm. However, all voters in the queue after 10:00pm will still get the chance to vote. Light is being provided by solar lamps in areas where electricity is a challenge, these lamps have 8 – 12 hours of light provision.

2. JAMAN NORTH

The Jaman North Constituency has been the only case where we have had a significant challenge. As a result of disagreements between the political parties on the voters register, voting did not start at 7:00am as planned. After much discussion among the EC and parties, the issue of the register was resolved at around 12 o’clock. A decision taken by the DistrictSecurity Council to postpone the election without clearance from the Commission was overruled and the Commission instructed that voting should proceed.

However, several efforts by our officers to move materials to the 92 polling stations in the Constituency was unsuccessful. The security teams on the field could not guarantee a safe environment for the polls to continue. Therefore, as a result of the security challenges, the Commission has decided to reschedule the elections in the Jaman North Constituency to tomorrow Thursday December 8, 2016. Voting will start from 7:00am to 5:00pm at all the polling stations in the Jaman North Constituency.

We sincerely empathise with the anxiety and confusion suffered by voters in this constituency and we would like to assure them that adequate arrangements would be put in place to ensure everyone on the register there who turns up can vote.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are extremely excited that our plans and preparations have yielded good results. We have received commendation from allover the country about how successful voting has gone.

We have now entered the next phase of the exercise which is the sorting and counting of the ballot from all the polling stations.

We will continue to give you regular updates until the final results are declared by the Returning Officer.

Thank you.

Signed:

ERIC KOFI DZAKPASU

Head of Communications

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